Let the Buyer Beware

[Aquajock]

Honeybunch's discussion thread "Horror Story With A Happy Ending" was truly mind-boggling to me, although it shouldn't have been. I've been an instructor with a major fitness club chain for almost 5 years, and I will never work for any other facility precisely because it doesn't pull the kind of stunts Honeybunch described.

But I'm sure that experience is all too common. What gets commercialized gets corrupted, and nothing is more commercialized these days than the fitness industry. It's very embarrassing to me, as a certified instructor, to hear of scams like this, and I do think Honeybunch's Bally-person deliberately overstated the measurements to scare her into buying a package of sessions. Thank heavens HB is part of the "educated crowd"!

I'm afraid it's only going to get worse over time, as more and more "professionals" pour into the market and scramble for scarce consumer dollars - hardball sales tactics, supplementation and ergogenic food pushing, over-emphasizing the value of one protocol over another, and all the while implying that the consumer is an ignorant moron and the "pro" has the revealed wisdom of the ages.

Stay educated, Educated Crowd, and never let "them" take advantage of you!

Annette The Demoralized

 

[Bobbi]

Annette. Don't be demoralized. It's just a sell tactic and it's ever so common. Just beware and be fair. The best defense against such stuff is knowledge, support and integrity. I still believe the "bad guys" are the minority. We need to stick together. It's just too bad they can almost tumble someone like Honeybunch's confidence. Imagine what they could do to someone who isn't as mentally and physically in the know as HB! But as long as we sound off, they will lose their power to do much damage!

 

[starlight6]

Exactly...having someone throw that number at me would probably have thrown me into a clinical depression. Does that sound extreme? Remember how confident Honeybunch is...her reaction was very familiar to me.
I am absolutely furious about this. I'm so angry I can't even think straight.
Honeybunch, let those last lingering doubts go...you know who you are, & what you are. Those money-grubbing low lifes don't know anything at all.
Annette, that doesn't mean that I believe all gyms are like that, I certainly don't. I know if you work at a gym it is an honest & upstanding experience. We all know that just from "knowing" you. So don't even think about it.
Ruth